A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Ridiculous Pay - Bah

Posted: Sep 05, 2013

Is it just me or are a lot of you making minmal wage?

Average $10.00 an hour :( - How do they sleep at night?

[ In Reply To ..]
I survived cancer in my 30s, down to 74 lb at one point, but the pay was decent back then. Now in my 50s, after about 30 years as an MT, am earning about half what I made then and feel like I'm dying again. How do these companies sleep at night paying us crap while they are raking in the money? I make the usual 4 cpl for VR. It's really killing me.

Three and 3/4 Pennies Per Line - Bah

[ In Reply To ..]
You make 1/4 penny per line more than I do, which means that if you edit 300 lines/hour, you make almost one dollar an hour more than I do. I am relatively new and edit only the minimum of about 185 lines/hour, however, which is why I make minimum wage. I knew this wasn't a high-paying field when I trained for it, but I thought I'd make about $12.00/hour, which still isn't much, but at least you'd be able to live in a decent place and have food to go with it.

Can't average more than 250 lines per hour at 4 cpl - with about 75% ESL dictators :p

[ In Reply To ..]
If there were mostly decent dictators and a decent wage of at least 5 cpl for VR, I might be able to make enough to survive on, but at this point am in danger of losing my little home.

How do they sleep at night?

BTW, why do hospitals hire so many ESL doctors here? - Do they pay them less?

[ In Reply To ..]
The ESL dictators really slow me down, always a struggle, which is the main reason I can't average more than 250 lines an hour with the VR. :(

They hire them because - that is all there is

[ In Reply To ..]
the ESL from "over there" docs get their education free. They are probably less stringent about prerequisites, length of education, etc and so are more available than the US docs who have to school for a long period of time. I don't think they get paid less at all, but they are probably sending their income back overseas to support their families and their govt.

ESL docs - All there is

[ In Reply To ..]
Many of the ESL doctors are educated in the United States, that accent stays with a person all their life, and many of them become US citizens. They are not providing substandard care and they are not being paid less. I think if you investigate the educational system in India, for instance, you will find that the requirements for physicians in regard to prerequisites, length of education, etc. are probably more strict than they are in the US. Many MTs have college degrees. It is just as difficult for them to try and decipher doctor gum chewer with the Texas drawl as it is for us to figure out the ESLs. I'm not a foreigner but I am trying to see things from both sides.

I have to agree - xx

[ In Reply To ..]
Some of the most difficult for me are obviously American born and raised. Fast-talkers, mumblers, incorrect vocabulary, jumping back and forth and the time-wasting "uh, uh, uh, uh". With ESL once you get the accent it's a piece of cake.

can't average more than 250 lines per hour - egscmt

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't know what company you are talking about, but Opti-Script on the acct I was on is 95% ESL and we are talking from Nigeria or somewhere.Names you can't pronounce. The speech rec jobs looked NOTHING like what was dictated, so you basically had to type it from scratch for 5 cents a line. I was good if I did 200 lines an hour. Which is speech rec is about 10 dollars an hour. I could make more at McDonalds. But, when you send blanks from these doctors to QA, you're penalized. Yet the supervisor can't transcribe them, the QA director doesn't and if the QA people do, THEY do not get dinged for sending to themselves. It's a fright. Just a fright. When I put on my linkedin acct for the job that I wasn't going to get rich, I got a call from the owner telling me I was "negative."

ESL dictators - mostly Indian with my account

[ In Reply To ..]
I find the ESL ones that talk slowly are better than "American mumblers", but most rush through the dictation. I have one Indian dictator where the lab data is just a very fast blur of numbers and data..The VR prints it out as one huge jumble that I have to try to pick apart. There is no way to transcribe that accurately. I guess they don't care.

My BIL is a doctor and says most American doctors feel they are underpaid these days, so he says smart students are going into other fields that pay more, like business. Give me a break. I'm sure most doctors make a very decent living, as most are specialists, not family practice.

Well, I found out how much compassion doctors have for people when I had cancer in my 30s. I lost my life savings at the time with all their bills and not having decent medical insurance.

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x ...

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